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PRESENTED  TO  THE 


ILiby  nf  tie  Onmrsitf  of  California, « 


HON.  JOHN   COVCDE, 

BEPRESENTATIVE    FROM  PENNSYLVANIA.. 


ENGRAVED    PCS    BARNES   HISTORY  Of   CONGRESS. 


MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES 


LIFE     AND     CHARACTER 


JOHN    COVODE, 


A  REPRESENTATIVE  FROM  PENNSYLVANIA, 


DELIVERED    Vt   THE 


SENATE  AND  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 


FEBRUARY  9  AND  10,   1871. 


WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT     PRINTING     OFFICE. 
1871. 


» 


PROCEEDINGS  IN  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES. 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  KELLEY,   OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  We  have  again  been  painfully  reminded  that  there 
is  an  appointed  time  to  man  on  earth,  and  that  he  is  consumed,  and 
vanisheth  away  as  the  cloud.  When  on  Friday,  the  6th  of  January, 
he  left  Washington  for  a  brief  visit  to  Philadelphia  and  Harrisburg, 
few  of  us  appeared  to  have  a  firmer  hold  on  life  or  the  more  assured 
promise  of  a  green  and  comfortable  old  age  than  my  late  colleague, 
Hon.  John  Covode.  Descending  from  ancestors  on  either  side  whose 
lives  had  been  prolonged  beyond  the  allotted  period,  endowed  with 
a  robust  and  muscular  frame,  and  having  enjoyed  singular  immunity 
from  disease,  he  was  happy  in  the  thought  that  at  the  expiration  of 
this  Congress  he  was  to  return  to  private  life  and  devote  his  energies 
to  the  promotion  of  several  enterprises  in  which  his  interests  and 
feelings  were  engaged.  But  it  was  not  so -appointed.  He  was  not 
to  return  to  his  place  in  this  hall;  and  the  execution  of  his  cherished 
purposes  was  to  be  confided  to  other  hands. 

From  Philadelphia  he  went  with  his  younger  sons  to  West  Chester, 
Pennsylvania,  to  replace  them  in  the  excellent  academy  in  which 
they  had  been  receiving  those  educational  advantages  of  which 
untoward  circumstances  had  deprived  their  father.  Accompanied  by 
his  wife  he  proceeded  to  Harrisburg  on  the  icth  of  January.  He 
was  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  usual  vigorous  health,  and  passed  the 
evening  in  cheerful  intercourse  with  friends  assembled  at  its  capital 
from  the  several  quarters  of  his  native  State.  Expecting  to  take  the 
early  morning  train,  he  retired  early  and  slept,  free  from  apprehension 
of  the  dread  summoner.  About  three  o'clock  he  was  awaked  by  a 
severe  pain  about  the  heart.  What  wife  and  friends  and  medical 
skill  could  do  for  his  relief  was  done;  but  in  less  than  two  brief  hours 
the  strong  man  feebly  gasped  the  dread  words,  "  I  am  dying,"  and 
passed  beyond  the  sphere  of  temporal  trials  or  triumphs. 

A  distinguished  citizen   of  Massachusetts,  in    the    course    of  an 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF   JOHN    COVODE. 


elaborate  article  entitled  "The  Government  and  the  Railroad 
Corporations,"  in  the  last  number  of  the  North  American  Review,  in 
characterizing  the  people  of  Pennsylvania,  says : 

"They  are  not  marked  by  intelligence.  They  are,  in  fact,  dull, 
uninteresting,  very  slow,  and  very  persevering.  These  are  qualities, 
however,  which  they  hold  in  common  with  the  ancient  Romans. 
And  they  possess  also,  in  a  marked  degree,  one  other  characteristic 
of  that  classic  race,  the  power  of  organization,  and  through  it  of 
command.  They  have  always  decided  our  presidential  elections; 
they  have  always,  in  their  dull,  heavy  fashion,  regulated  our 
economical  policy;  their  iron-masters  have,  in  truth,  proved  iron 
masters  indeed,  when  viewed  by  other  localities  through  the  medium 
of  the  protective  system  by  them  imposed.  Not  open  to  argument, 
not  receptive  of  ideas,  not  given  to  flashes  of  brilliant  execution,  this 
State  none  the  less  knows  well  what  it  wants,  and  knows  equally 
well  how  to  organize  to  secure  it." 

The  author  of  this  paragraph  would  probably  have  found  little  to 
commend  in  the  character  and  career  of  Mr.  Covode,  who  was  born 
in  the  mountainous  wilds  of  Western  Pennsylvania  many  years  before 
that  State  had  provided  common  schools  for  its  children,  and  whose 
childhood  and  youth  were  passed  in  toil  on  a  farm  and  in  a  woolen 
mill.  He  had  not  studied  the  writings  of  Kant,  Fichte,  or  Hegel,  or 
even  made  himself  familiar  with  those  of  Carlyle  or  Emerson.  But, 
ignorant  as  he  may  have  been  of  the  doctrine  of  intuitive  perceptions 
and  the  body  of  transcendental  philosophy,  he  had,  without  these 
aids,  attained  such  a  knowledge  of  the  uses  of  material  nature,  and 
the  springs  that  animate,  impel,  or  restrain  men,  as  made  him  the 
welcome  and  trusted  counselor,  when  maturing  their  grandest  projects, 
of  men  far  more  learned,  brilliant,  and  distinguished  than  himself. 
His  letters  contain  no  quotations  from  classic  authors,  but  are 
replete  with  evidence  of  his  sagacity,  insight  into  the  motives  of 
men,  and  masculine  and  matured  judgment. 

Mr.  Covode  was  born  in  Westmoreland  County,  Pennsylvania,  on 
the  i yth  of  March,  1808.  That  his  parentage  was  humble  will  be 
inferred  from  the  fact  that  his  grandfather,  Garrett  Covode,  a  native 


REMARKS    OF    MR.    KELLEY,    OF    PENNSYLVANIA. 


of  Holland,  was  when  a  child  kidnapped  in  the  streets  of  Amsterdam 
by  a  sea-captain,  who  brought  him  to  Philadelphia  and  under  then 
existing  laws  sold  him  into  bondage  as  a  "  redemptioner,"  in  which 
condition  he  was  held  for  some  years  after  coming  to  manhood,  and 
was  subsequently  employed  as  a  domestic  servant  in  the  household 
of  General  Washington.  He  died  in  1826  at  the  advanced  age  of 
ninety-four  years.  The  mother  of  Mr.  Covode  was  a  Quaker,  and 
it  is  among  the  traditions  of  her  family  that  two  of  her  ancestors, 
together  with  a  person  named  Wood,  prepared  and  published  a  pro 
test  against  the  decision  of  William  Penn  recognizing  the  legality  of 
African  slavery.  This  protest  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  anti-slavery 
manifesto  published  in  this  country. 

The  first  public  office  filled  by  Mr.  Covode  was  that  of  justice  of 
the  peace  "  for  Ligonier  and  Fairfield  Townships,"  to  which  he  was 
appointed  by  Governor  Wolf  before  he  was  twenty-four  years  of  age. 
Then,  and  in  this  humble  office,  it  was  that  his  neighbors  bestowed 
upon  him  the  sobriquet  of  honest.  John  Covode.  His  office,  to  which 
angry  litigants  were  summoned,  was  in  truth  a  court  of  conciliation, 
in  which,  regardless  of  the  emoluments  of  office,  the  judge  found  his 
duty  and  pleasure 'in  adjusting  by  compromise  disputed  claims  between 
neighbors  and  soothing  their  exasperation. 

In  1845  he  was  nominated  by  the  Whig  conferees  of  the  counties 
of  Somerset  and  Westmorland  as  the  candidate  of  that  party  for 
State  Senator.  The  district  was  largely  Democratic  and  he  was  de 
feated,  although  he  received  several  hundred  more  votes  than  any 
other  candidate  on  the  State  or  local  ticket  of  his  party.  At  the  next 
senatorial  election  he  was  again  nominated,  and  such  was  his  personal 
popularity  that  though  both  counties  gave  large  Democratic  majorities 
for  the  general  ticket,  he  came  within  fifty  votes  of  election.  In  1854 
he  was  nominated  for  Congress  by  the  Whigs  of  the  nineteenth  dis 
trict,  consisting  of  Westmoreland,  Indiana,  and  Armstrong  Counties. 
His  competitor  had  been  returned  at  the  preceding  election  by  a 
large  majority,  but  Mr.  Covode  led  him  2,757  votes,  and  was  returned. 
This  was  the  Thirty-fourth  Congress,  and  he  was  re-elected  to  the 
Thirty-fifth,  Thirty-sixth,  and  Thirty-seventh. 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF   JOHN    COVODE. 


On  the  5th  of  March,  1860,  he  introduced  a  resolution  providing 
for  a  committee  of  five  members  of  the  House  "  for  the  purpose  of 
investigating  whether  the  President  of  the  United  States  or  any  other 
officer  of  the  Government  has,  by  money,  patronage,  or  other  im 
proper  means,  sought  to  influence  the  action  of  Congress,  or  any  com 
mittees  thereof,  for  or  against  the  passage  of  any  law  appertaining  to 
the  rights  of  any  State  or  Territory,"  &c. 

Few  who  wrere  engaged  in  the  political  struggles  of  those  days  will 
forget  the  industry,  energy,  and  ability  with  which  Mr.  Covode  con 
ducted  the  investigation  ordered  by  this  resolution,  or  the  influence 
his  elaborate  report  had  upon  the  public  mind.  The  report  was  a 
thorough  exposure  of  the  corrupt  appliances  by  which  the  Kansas- 
Nebraska  legislation  had  been  secured,  and  was  soon  in  the  hands  of 
every  Republican  speaker  or  writer  in  the  country. 

Mr.  Covode  was  twice  married,  and  had  three  sons  by  his  first 
marriage,  all  of  whom  he  gave  to  the  country  upon  the  breaking 
out  of  the  war.  George,  the  eldest,  rose  by  gradual  and  well-won 
promotion  to  the  rank  of  colonel,  and  was  killed,  while  leading  his 
regiment,  at  the  battle  of  St.  Mary's  Church,  in  1864.  The  youngest, 
Jacob,  pined  for  more  than  eighteen  months  in  the  loathsome  and 
pestilential  pen  provided  for  Union  prisoners  at  Andersonville.  He 
still  lives,  a  broken  and  prematurely  old  man.  Mr.  Covode's 
industry  and  enterprise  had  meanwhile  secured  him  an  ample  com 
petence,  and  with  his  sons  he  was  ready  to  devote  this,  too,  to  his 
country;  and  while  bankers  and  capitalists  were  doubting  the  pro 
priety  of  investing  in  the  war  loan  about  to  be  issued,  the  telegraph 
informed  the  people  that  John  Covode  had  apprised  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  of  his  purpose  to  take  $50,000  of  the  forthcoming 
bonds. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Joint  Committee  on  the  Conduct  of  the 
War.  To  the  labors  of  this  committee  he  devoted  himself  with 
untiring  zeal  until  the  4th  of  March,  1863,  when,  having  declined  a 
nomination,  he  retired  from  Congress.  Availing  himself  of  the 
knowledge  Mr.  Covode  had  thus  acquired,  and  of  his  quick 
perception  of  the  motives  of  men,  President  Johnson  requested  him 


REMARKS    OF    MR.    KELLEY,    OF    PENNSYLVANIA.  7 

to  make  a  tour  of  observation  through  the  unreconstructed  States 
and  report  his  conclusions  and  the  general  facts  upon  which  they 
\vere  based.  But,  observing  the  change  that  had  taken  place  in  the 
views  and  purposes  of  the  President,  he  soon  returned  and  submitted 
a  report,  which  was  never  made  public,  though  the  House  called 
upon  the  President  for  a  copy  thereof. 

Mr.  Covode  having  refused  to  be  a  candidate,  the  district  was 
represented  by  a  Democrat,  Hon.  John  L.  Dawson,  in  the  Thirty- 
eighth  and  Thirty-ninth  Congresses.  Yielding  to  the  demands  of 
his  party,  he  however  accepted  a  nomination  for  the  Fortieth  and 
was  returned  by  a  handsome  majority,  and  was,  after  a  contest  by 
Hon.  Henry  D.  Foster,  also  awarded  a  seat  in  the  Forty-first 
Congress.  His  influence  was  not  confined  to  his  county  or  con 
gressional  district.  It  was  felt  throughout  the  State,  not  only  in 
politics,  but  in  all  measures  projected  for  the  development  of  its 
boundless  material  resources.  Having  been  appointed  to  the 
position  in  1869,  and  conducted  the  campaign  that  resulted  in 
the  re-election  of  Governor  Geary,  he  was  at  the  time  of  his  death 
chairman  of  the  Republican  State  central  committee. 

In  comparatively  early  manhood  he  became  the  owner  of  the 
woolen  mill  in  which  he  had  been  employed  when  a  boy.  He 
watched  with  interest  our  progress  in  the  manufacture  of  textiles,  and 
labored  to  promote  their  diversification  and  perfection.  But  his  mill 
did  not  offer  an  adequate  field  for  his  activity.  He  took  a  zealous 
part  in  promoting  the  construction  of  internal  improvements  by 
which  the  seaboard  should  be  connected  with  the  then  opening 
West,  and  on  the  completion  of  the  Pennsylvania  Canal  engaged 
largely  in  the  business  of  transportation.  He  was  also  a  liberal  and 
energetic  promoter  of  the  construction  of  the  Pennsylvania  Central 
Railroad.  On  the  completion  of  this  road  to  Lockport,  where  he 
lived  and  superintended  his  mill,  he  concentrated  his  stock  upon  the 
western  sections  of  the  canal  and  engaged  in  forwarding  to  and  from 
Pittsburg  the  rapidly  increasing  freight  moved  by  the  railroad. 
About  this  time  he  also  organized  the  Westmoreland  Coal  Company, 
which  has  developed  the  immense  deposits  of  gas  coal  that  underlie 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    JOHN"    COVODE. 


in  such  affluence  his  native  hills.  By  this  operation  he  added  to  the 
wealth  of  every  farmer  in  the  county,  for  the  army  of  stalwart  men 
now  earning  liberal  wages  by  mining  and  handling  this  coal  is  so 
numerous  that  it  gives  them  a  steady  home  market,  not  only  for  the 
cereals,  but  the  minor  productions  of  the  farm  which  will  not  bear 
extended  transportation. 

Mr.  Speaker,  what  I  have  said  is  sufficient  to  show  that  Mr.  Covode 
was  a  man  of  power  and  a  useful  citizen.  He  had  long  been  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  was  faithful  in  all  the  rela 
tions  of  life,  and  his  story  may  be  read  with  profit  by  the  youth  of 
the  country.  Born  subject  to  those  "twin  jailers  of  the  daring  heart, 
low  birth  and  iron  fortune,"  and  receiving  the  benefits  of  but  the 
smallest  opportunities  for  early  culture,  he  mastered  fortune,  com 
manded  the  confidence  of  his  neighbors  and  fellow-citizens,  and 
secured  for  his  name  an  honorable  place  in  his  country's  history,  and, 
by  originating  and  promoting  beneficent  enterprises,  wrote  it  endur- 
ingly  on  the  hills  and  in  the  homes  of  his  native  county.  He  left  a 
wife  and  seven  children  to  mourn  his  sudden  death.  The  results  of 
his  provident  care  surround  them,  and  their  sorrow  is  alleviated  by 
the  confident  assurance  that  he  who  was  so  fondly  devoted  to  them 
has  entered  upon  the  rewards  that  are  earned  by  a  well-spent  life. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  submit  the  following  resolutions : 

Resolved,  That  the  House  has  heard  with  deep  regret  of  the  death 
of  Honorable  John  Covode,  a  member  of  this  House  from  the  State 
of  Pennsylvania. 

Resolved..  That,  as  a  testimony  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  the 
deceased,  the  officers  and  members  of  this  House  will  wear  the  usual 
badge  of  mourning  for  the  space  of  thirty  days. 

Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  transmitted  to  the 
family  of  the  deceased  by  the  Clerk. 

Resolved,  That  the  House,  as  a  further  mark  of  respect  to  the 
deceased,  do  now  adjourn. 


REMARKS    OF    MR.    BANKS,    OF    MASSACHUSETTS. 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  BANKS,  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

It  is  a  common  event,  Mr.  Speaker,  that  interrupts  the  regular 
course  of  legislative  business,  and  calls  upon  us  to  reflect  upon  the 
loss  we  have  sustained  by  the  death  of  the  late  honorable  member 
of  the  House  from  Pennsylvania,  to  consider  our  relations  to  each 
other  and  to  the  great  Author  of  our  being.  No  occurrence  is  more 
frequent.  There  is  not  a  day,  not  an  hour,  scarcely  a  minute  passes 
over  us  that  some  recruit  or  veteran  in  the  great  army  of  life  does 
not  drop  by  our  side  or  within  our  sight. 

It  is  not  violence  or  crime,  disease  or  excess  alone,  that  gives  death 
its  victory.  It  has  other  means  of  conquest  than  the  shot  and  shock 
of  battle,  the  murderous  affray,  the  indulgence  of  passion,  or  the 
storm  and  tempest  in  the  physical  world.  Though  human  passions 
were  extinct  and  men  as  guileless  as  the  flowers  of  the  field,  still  the 
carnage  would  go  on.  Death  wrould  still  reap  its  regular  and  prolific 
harvest.  There  are  seeds  as  well  as  instruments  of  death.  They  are 
sown  everywhere — in  hills,  in  drills,  and  broadcast.  No  clime  so 
rugged,  no  soil  so  barren,  that  it  will  not  bear  this  fruit.  That  which 
falls  even  by  the  wayside  or  upon  stony  ground  is  not  lost. 

This  is  the  harvest  that  never  fails.  No  class  of  men  escapes.  Our 
predecessors  in  these  classic  Halls  have  been  swept  away  by  battalions. 
The  paths  of  granite  and  marble  that  lead  to  the  Capitol  have  been 
worn  away  by  the  unceasing  and  heavy  tread  of  anxious  and  solemn 
men  that  from  every  part  of  the  Union  have  come  here  to  meditate 
upon  the  necessities  and  to  labor  for  the  improvement  and  preserva 
tion  of  the  Government.  Where  are  they  now  ?  Death  has  spared 
but  few.  Of  a  score  and  a  half  of  Congresses,  perhaps  more,  even 
now,  in  the  infancy  of  our  Government,  not  one  living  voice  is  heard, 
no  representative  remains.  The  best,  the  bravest,  the  noblest  of  our 
land,  all  are  gone.  Madison,  Monroe,  Adams,  Polk,  Clay,  Benton, 
Webster,  Calhoun,  Macon,  Douglas,  Broderick,  Giddings,  Davis, 
Wilmot,  Stevens,  Burlingame,  are  but  types  of  the  hosts  that  have 
preceded  us  to  the  only  haven  of  rest  for  wearied,  exhausted,  betrayed 
human  nature. 


10  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    JOHN    COVODE. 

It  is  a  common  event,  therefore,  that  summons  us  to  suspend 
deliberation  upon  the  affairs  of  life,  that  we  may  consider  for  a  moment 
those  of  eternity.  That  which  makes  it  seem  particular  with  us  is 
that  it  stole  upon  us  without  our  knowledge ;  swept  from  our  side  the 
stalwart  form  of  active  and  vigorous  life  upon  which  we  relied  for 
help  in  committee,  in  session,  and  in  society ;  broke  up  the  quorum 
of  associates  and  friends,  and  leit  us  stunned,  standing  in  helpless 
silence,  knowing  only  what  shadows  we  are,  and  what  shadows  w'e 
pursue.  Like  time,  the  angel  of  death  hides  its  wings  as  it  ap 
proaches.  It  is  when  they  are  upon  us  and  cover  us  that  we  com 
prehend  the  depth  of  that  shadowless  valley  through  which  it  takes 
its  flight.  How  difficult  it  is  to  comprehend,  in  this  full  blaze  of 
light  and  life,  that  the  broad-shouldered,  stalwart  man  who  stood 
beside  us,  his  voice  still  ringing  in  our  ears,  unceasing  in  his  activity, 
doing  no  wrong,  seeking  only  the  good  of  others,  should,  even  while 
we  turned  to  look  upon  him,  disappear  from  our  sight  forever,  and 
his  spirit  by  translation  pass  to  another  world ! 

The  death  of  Mr.  Covode  reminds  me  how  much  we  depend  upon 
others  for  the  selection  and  acquaintance  with  our  most  intimate 
associates.  I  knew  him  chiefly  through  my  late  lamented  friend, 
Mr.  Burlingame.  He  was  the  earliest  among  many  active  and 
sagacious  men  of  the  Thirty-fourth  Congress  to  analyze  his  character 
and  accord  due  honor  to  the  separate  elements  of  which  it  was  com 
posed. 

Mr.  Burlingame  was  a  harmonizer.  It  was  his  ambition  to  bring 
those  who  should  act  together,  to  understand  and  know  each  other. 
No  man  was  ever  endowed  with  more  of  this  divine  power.  He  ap 
peared  to  feel  instinctively  not  merely  the  presence  of  good  or  evil 
spirits,  but  to  measure  with  unerring  justice  the  exact  degree  with 
which  innocent  and  baneful  qualities  were  mixed  in  human  character. 
He  looked  upon  the  world  with  the  eye  of  childhood,  but  he  judged 
it  with  almost  more  than  mortal  wisdom.  Without  effort  and  without 
resistance  he  allowed  its  varied  characters  to  be  photographed  upon 
his  mind ;  and  thus  he  read,  as  by  an  unseen  light,  the  secret  natures 
of  men  by  whom  he  was  surrounded  and  with  whom  he  was  associ- 


REMARKS    OF    MR.    BANKS,    OF    MASSACHUSETTS.  1 1 

ated.  He  knew  all  qualities  certainly  with  a  most  learned  spirit.  It 
was  this  purpose  and  this  power  which  gave  him  in  speech,  and  still 
more  in  social  intercourse,  the  great  influence  which  he  wielded  here, 
and  enabled  him  in  another  sphere  to  bring  together  unknown  and 
hostile  sections  of  the  world  with  mutual  satisfaction  and  advantage. 

Mr.  Burlingame  was  naturally  and  at  once  drawn  into  confidential 
and  friendly  relations  with  Mr.  Covode,  who,  in  a  different  way  and 
upon  a  different  class  of  persons,  exercised  the  same  important  and 
beneficent  influence.  I  shall  never  forget  the  delight  with  which  Mr. 
Burlingame  first  spoke  to  me  of  having  found  in  tyis  new  friend  a 
kindred  spirit.  It  is  strange  that  men  so  unlike  in  condition,  in 
habit,  and  in  cultivation  should  be  so  drawn  together;  but  it  is  the 
one  common  touch  of  nature  makes  the  whole  world  kin.  No  two 
persons  exercised  a  higher  or  purer  influence  in  the  Congress  which 
brought  them  together,  and  their  mutual  esteem  and  friendship  ended 
only  with  their  lives.  It  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  pronounce  a 
higher  eulogium  upon  the  character  of  the  late  member  of  the  House 
than  to  repeat  what  I  have  so  often  heard  fall  from  the  eloquent  lips 
of  our  common  friend ;  and  I  am  sure  no  estimate  of  character 
could  be  more  highly  prized  by  his  family  or  friends,  or  by  the  mem 
bers  of  the  House  around  me,  than  a  favorable  judgment  formed 
under  such  circumstances  and  considerately  expressed  by  the  dis 
tinguished  man  to  whom  I  have  referred. 

The  peculiar  and  prominent  characteristics  of  Mr.  Covode  were 
his  simplicity,  sincerity,  and  earnestness.  His  convictions  were  clear 
and  strong.  He  was  necessarily  a  partisan,  because  he  adhered  to 
his  convictions  and  those  who  supported  them ;  but  he  was  an  honest 
and  generous  partisan.  With  the  best  opportunities  to  judge  during 
the  most  excited  period  of  our  recent  political  history,  I  never 
observed  in  him  the  slightest  tinge  of  malignity,  of  selfishness,  or 
envy.  There  is  no  character  of  the  heated  period  of  which  I  speak 
that  I  recall  with  more  unmixed  satisfaction  or  higher  respect. 

There  is  no  better  illustration  of  the  power  of  good  sense,  honest 
purposes,  and  earnest  devotion,  unaccompanied  by  the  advantages 
of  scholarship,  than  that  which  his  career  exhibits.  He  was,  as  his 


12  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF   JOHN    COVODE. 

distinguished  and  eloquent  colleague  has  said,  an  uneducated  man ; 
but  there  are  elements  of  power  more  important  in  the  management 
of  human  affairs  than  polite  learning  or  scholastic  education. 

"Knowledge  and  wisdom,  far  from  being  one, 
Have  ofttimes  no  connection.     Knowledge  dwells 
In  heads  replete  with  thoughts  of  other  men ; 
Wisdom  in  minds  attentive  to  their  own. 
Knowledge,  a  rude,  unprofitable  mass, 
The  mere  material  with  which  wisdom  builds, 
Till  smoothed  and  squared  and  fitted  in  its  place, 
D6th  but  incumber  where  it  seems  to  enrich." 

Mr.  Covode  had  this  wisdom.  There  were  few  among  us  who 
had  a  larger  share  of  influence  in  public  affairs  when  he  gave  them 
his  attention,  or  could  better  impress  his  convictions  upon  the  masses 
of  the  people. 

Without  any  of  the  graces  of  oratory,  his  speeches,  short,  senten 
tious,  apposite,  and  replete  with  enthusiasm,  never  failed  to  produce 
the  effect  which  is  both  the  purpose  and  result  of  true  eloquence — 
that  of  challenging  attention  and  working  conviction.  His  addresses 
to  popular  assemblies  were  of  this  character ;  practical,  enriched  with 
copious  illustrations,  pertinent  to  his  argument,  never  above  the 
comprehension  of  his  auditors,  and  never  failing  to  carry  conviction 
to  those  whom  he  addressed.  The  political  campaigns  that  followed 
the  presidential  election  of  1856,  especially  those  which  brought  in 
review  the  incidents  .of  the  distinguished  administration  of  Mr. 
Buchanan,  gave  signal  evidence  of  his  success  and  power. 

There  was  a  religious  tinge  in  all  his  thoughts  and  actions  not 
unlike  that  attributed  to  Huguenots  and  Puritans,  but  which  gave 
him  a  somewhat  different  character.  Though  a  stern  partisan  he  did 
not  counsel  extreme  measures.  A  generous  policy,  enforced  with 
unity  and  vigor,  represented  his  theory  of  wise  political  action. 
When  party  necessities  carried  men  beyond  this  he  was  a  cool, 
reluctant,  if  not  halting  supporter.  It  has  been  said,  and  I  believe 
with  entire  truth,  that  it  was  due  to  the  direct  action  and  influence  of 
Mr.  Covode  that  Mr.  President  Lincoln  was  led,  against  the  advice 


REMARKS    OF    MR.    BANKS,    OF    MASSACHUSETTS.  13 


of  some  of  the  most  prominent  of  his  supporters,  to  issue  the  order 
directing  the  immediate  and  unreserved  exchange  of  prisoners  of 
war  during  the  latter  period  of  the  great  rebellion.'  If  this  be  true, 
no  man  can  present  a  more  honorable  claim  to  the  respect  of  the 
people,  without  reference  to  political  opinions  or  partisan  relations. 
This  view  of  his  character  is  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  he  never 
failed  or  faltered  in  support  of  those  measures  which  were  deemed 
necessary  to  protect  and  preserve  the  Government  and  to  secure  and 
perpetuate  the  liberties  of  all  its  people. 

Though  we  lament  his  death,  we  cannot  be  unconscious  that  our 
loss  is  his  gain.  He  exchanges  one  life  for  another.  It  is  not 
annihilation,  but  ascension  that  he  has  attained.  He  will  suffer  no 
longer  the  disappointment  which  attends  the  expectation  and  the 
effort  to  make  the  world  virtuous  by  statute  legislation  or  despotic 
administration.  He  has  passed  to  a  higher  wisdom  and  holier  exist 
ence.  He  is  done  with  the  vanities  of  life,  with  its 

"  Reveries  so  airy,  with  the  toil 
Of  dropping  buckets  into  empty  wells, 
And  growing  old  in  drawing  nothing  up." 

The  death  of  Mr.  Covode  is  one  of  the  many  events  which  impart 
to  all  men  an  unaccustomed  feeling  of  insecurity.  Death  produces 
death  and  calamity  begets  calamity.  The  terrible  afflictions  which 
within  a  few  years  have  passed  over  the  face  of  the  earth,  crushing 
empires  and  states  as  well  as  individuals,  more  than  ever  should  lead 
us  to  recognize  our  dependence  upon  the  beneficent  will  of  the 
Creator  of  the  world.  It  should  teach  us  as  well  that  permanent 
success  follows  only  justice  and  truth;  that  there  is  but  one  law — 
the  law  of  God — to  which  the  world  should  be  subjected;  and  that — 
"One  Spirit,  His 

Who  bore  the  platted  thorns  with  bleeding  brows, 

Rules  universal  nature." 


14  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    JOHN    COVODE. 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  MERCUR,   OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  I  feel  unwilling  to  suffer  this  occasion  to  pass 
without  briefly  adding  my  tribute  to  a  departed  friend. 

John  Covode's  life  was  a  striking  illustration  of  the  success  which 
will  crown  the  works  of  an  earnest  and  laborious  man.  Deprived  in 
his  youth  of  the  advantages  of  a  liberal  education,  he  felt  the  greater 
need  of  literally  working  his  way  to  enable  him  to  rise  in  eminence 
and  to  fortune.  This  he  determined  to  do.  Strong  physical  powers, 
clear  practical  mind,  and  indomitable  will,  all  united  in  impelling 
him  onward  and  upward.  His  was  a  mind  that  was  not  contented 
to  occupy  any  uncertain  position.  No  so-called  "conservative" 
doctrines  ever  deterred  him  from  pursuing  the  right,  as  he  saw  it. 
Sprung  from  liberty-loving  ancestors,  he 'retained  all  their  notions  of 
freedom,  but  grafted  thereon  a  greater  love,  begotten  by  the  spirit  of 
this  progressive  age.  His  opinions  once  carefully  formed,  no 
timidity  characterized  their  expression.  He  followed  his  convictions 
to  their  logical  consequences.  Men  who  united  their  political 
fortunes  with  his  felt  a  confidence  that  he  would  continue  as  he 
began,  and  not  turn  aside  and  leave  them  without  a  standard-bearer 
to  lead  them. 

Neither  his  accumulated  wealth  nor  his  prominent  position  in  the 
eye  of  the  nation  ever  estranged  him  from  his  early  and  less  fortunate 
associates.  Dwelling  in  the  small  but  beautiful  and  retired  valley  of 
the  Ligonier,  in  his  native  county  of  Westmoreland,  he  never  appeared 
to  desire  a  home  elsewhere.  The  rugged  hills  which  surrounded  his 
residence  seemed  to  give  strength  to  his  judgment  and  freedom  to 
his  speech. 

When,  in  obedience  to  a  resolution  of  this  House,  I  stood  beside 
his  coffin,  and  hundreds  of  his  neighbors  and  friends  passed  before  it, 
I  saw  unmistakable  evidence  of  the  esteem  and  affection  which  they 
had  borne  toward  him.  With  pride  they  had  viewed  his  elevation 
and  success  in  life.  They  shared  in  his  reputation.  His  honor  was 
their  honor.  No  jealousies  had  separated  them.  He  had  ever 
returned  to  them  the  same  social,  kind,  and  unassuming  friend.  His 


REMARKS    OF    MR.    NIBLACK,    OF    INDIANA. 


was  a  nature  to  mourn  with  them  when  they  mourned,  and  to  rejoice 
with,  them  when  they  rejoiced.  A  true  type  of  our  republican 
institutions,  he  never  for  a  moment  lost  sight  of  that  great  cardinal 
doctrine  that  ours  is  "  a  Government  of  the  people,  for  the  .people, 
and  by  the  people." 

Suddenly  stricken  down  in  the  midst  of  his  active  life,  this  House 
has  lost  one  of  its  most  faithful  members,  the  nation  one  of  its 
watchful  legislators,  the  State  of  Pennsylvania  one  of  its  best  known 
and  most  enterprising  citizens,  and  his  family  a  kind  and  indulgent 
husband  and  father. 


REMARKS  OF  MR.   NIBLACK,    OF  INDIANA. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  I  feel  that  I  ought  not  to  allow  this  occasion  to 
pass  without  adding  a  few  words. 

Very  few  persons  on  this  side  of  the  House,  outside  of  his  own 
State,  have  perhaps  known  the  deceased  as  long  and  as  well  as  I 
have.  When,  in  December,  1857,  I  first  entered  this  House  as  one 
of  its  members,  I  found  him  here  as  one  of  the  Representatives 
from  Pennsylvania,  and  I  soon  afterward  made  his  acquaintance. 
He  was  then,  I  think,  serving  on  his  second  term.  He  was  one  of 
the  very  few  I  then  met  who  are  now  members  of  either  of  the  two 
Houses  of  Congress.  Although  neither  of  us  have  been  since  con 
tinuously  members  of  this  body,  yet  it  has  so  happened  that  this 
makes  the  fourth  Congress,  I  believe,  in  which  we  have  served 
simultaneously. 

Soon  after  thus  first  meeting  him  we  were  thrown  together  on 
some  tedious  and  rather  important  committee  work,  which  required 
almost  daily  meetings  for  many  weeks,  and  which  brought  us  into 
frequent  and  unreserved  personal  association.  That  association 
ripened  into  a  rather  intimate  personal  acquaintance,  and  from  that 
time  to  the  day  of  our  last  meeting  we  always  met  rather  as  old 
neighbors  and  familiar  friends  are  accustomed  to  meet  than  as  new- 
made  acquaintances,  representing  different  and  distant  States.  And 
however  much  we  may  have  differed  in  our  political  views  and 


1 6  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF   JOHN    COVODE. 

party  associations,  nothing  of  a  personally  unpleasant  character 
ever  occurred  between  us. 

I  have  seldom  since  met  him  that  he  did  not  have  some  cheerful 
word  to  impart  or  something  quaint  and  amusing  to  communicate. 
Of  course  it  was  not  in  the  nature  of  things  that  I  should  learn  to 
know  him  here  as  his  friends  and  neighbors  at  home  knew  him.  I 
can  only  speak  of  him  as  he  impressed  himself  upon  me  from  time 
to  time  as  I  saw  him  here.  He  was  evidently  a  gentleman  of  well- 
marked  traits  of  character.  He  had  shrewdness  and  energy  in  an 
eminent  degree.  He  too  was  self-possessed  and  self-reliant.  These 
qualities  all  combined  made  him  at  once  a  valuable  friend  and  a 
dangerous  antagonist.  He  impressed  me  too  as  a  man  of  a 
remarkably  good  memory,  with  a  great  aptitude  for  details  in  all 
the  practical  affairs  of  life.  His  cast  of  mind,  too,  was  eminently 
practical.  He  had  no  taste  for  mere  theories.  With  him  the  great 
question  seemed  to  be  what  was  it  best  to  do  under  the  circum 
stances  by  which  he  was  surrounded,  and  when  that  was  solved  he 
hesitated  no  longer.  There  are  some  phases  of  political  life,  too, 
to  which  he  seemed  peculiarly  adapted.  He  was  especially  ob 
servant  as  to  the  political  maneuverings  of  the  politicians  of  all 
parties.  In  such  matters  he  was  usually  remarkably  well-informed. 
To  him  I  have  often  been  indebted  for  my  first  information  as  to 
current  political  events  which  were  not  yet  publicly  known. 

I  will  not,  however,  Mr.  Speaker,  attempt  an  analysis  of  the  char 
acter  of  the  deceased,  nor  will  I  dwell  upon  any  of  the  incidents  of 
his  official  life.  These  have  already  been  sufficiently  referred  to  by 
others.  Sir,  it  was  but  the  other  day — perhaps  not  a  week  before  his 
death — that  on  my  way  to  the  Capitol  I  fell  in  with  him  on  the 
Avenue,  and  we  came  on  the  rest  of  the  way  together.  In  our  rather 
desultory  conversation  which  ensued  I  referred  to  the  fact  that  he 
would  not  be  with  us  in  the  next  Congress,  and  inquired  of  him  how 
he  felt  about  returning  to  private  life  again.  He  responded  with 
seeming  cheerfulness,  that  he  was  quite  willing  to  quit  Congress  for  a 
while,  and  possibly  forever.  Referring  to  his  age,  he  said  it  was  get 
ting  time  he  would  settle  down  a  little  more  quietly  than  he  had  been 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  MAYNARD,  OF  TENNESSEE.          17 

for  many  years  past.  "  But,"  said  he,  "  I  have  plenty  to  do  at  home 
in  looking  after  my  business;  besides,  political  matters  have  not  been 
going  right  for  some  time  in  Pennsylvania,  and  I  will  then  have  more 
time  to  help  straighten  things  up  there."  Continuing,  he  further  re 
marked  :  "  I  am  good  for  several  years'  hard  work  yet,  and  I  am  not 
going  to  give  up  politics  entirely  if  I  do  quit  Congress." 

He  was  then,  Mr.  Speaker,  apparently  as  full  of  life  and  of  plans 
for  the  future  as  any  of  us  here  to-day,  and  as  totally  unconscious 
that  the  relentless  hand  of  death  was  already  stretched  out  to  receive 
him.  You  can  judge  then  of  my  surprise,  sir,  of  the  shock  which  it 
imparted,  when  on  the  wings  of  the  lightning  the  news  came  to  us  of 
his  death  only  a  few  days  later.  No  man  of  all  my  acquaintances 
seemed  to  have  a  fairer  hold  on  life  for  a  few  years  to  come  than  he. 
Yet  without  a  note  of  warning  he  has  been  stricken  down.  From 
the  dust  he  came,  and  to  the  earth  he  has  returned.  As  but  yesterday 
he  was  a  part  of  that  living,  breathing,  moving,  restless  energy  we 
call  human  life,  to-day  all  that  remains  of  him  to  us  is  as  cold,  as  inert, 
and  as  lifeless  as  the  clay  in  which  he  rests. 

What  a  fearful  admonition  of  the  uncertainty  of  human  life !  How 
thin  the  drapery  which  separates  us  from  eternity !  And  yet  we  go 
on  planning,  scheming,  projecting,  as  if  we  had  a  perpetual  lease  of 
life,  as  if  the  "eternal  years  of  God"  were  ours. 

Mr.  Speaker,  a  strong  man  has  fallen,  another  chair  is  vacant  in 
this  Hall,  another  familiar  face  has  disappeared  from  among  us  for 
ever.  And  we,  his  survivors,  can  but  bow  in  reverence  to  that  divine 
will  which  has  thus  decreed  the  time  and  manner  of  his  death.  I 
also  concur  in  seconding  the  resolutions  which  have  been  offered. 


REMARKS  OF  MR,   MA  YNARD,    OF   TENNESSEE. 

The  request  by  the  friends  of  the  deceased  to  take  a  part  in  these 
obituary  ceremonies  cannot  be  denied.  It  is  the  common  desire  of 
us  all,  when  in  the  hour  of  bereavement  we  appeal  to  our  fellow-men, 
be  they  strangers  or  friends,  in  the  language  of  the  patriarch,  to  help 


1 8  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    JOHN    COVODE. 

us  bury  our  dead  out  of  our  sight,  and  must  not  be  unheeded.  The 
feeling  is  as  old  as  death  and  as  wide  as  humanity.  All  unite  with 
one  accord  in  granting  immunity  to  the  grave.  The  forms  of  the 
departed  are  gently  laid  away ;  their  memory  is  tenderly  cherished. 
No  man  of  sensibility  will  vex  the  sepulcher;  and  the  injunction  to 
speak  well  of  the  dead,  or  not  at  all,  is  a  precept  which  antedates 
Christianity.  Here  all  rivalries  cease,  all  resentments  are  extinguished, 
all  contentions  are  hushed.  The  brotherhood  of  mortality  meet  at 
the  common  gateway,  wide  and  ever  open,  through  which  all,  soon 
or  late,  are  destined  to  pass.  Thither  our  bewildered  footsteps,  be 
they  swift  or  be  they  slow,  are  constantly  tending.  The  soul  is  awed 
in  the  presence  of  its  own  appointed  doom.  In  tempore  sum,  de 
tempore  loqiwr,  at  nescio  quid  sit  tempus,  is  the  confession  of  St. 
Augustine ;  and  he  might  have  made  it,  in  phrase  slightly  changed, 
of  the  kindred  mysteries,  life,  death,  and  eternity,  as  well  as  of  time. 
Time  is  so  identified  with  life,  and  death  with  eternity,  that  in  speak 
ing  of  the  dead  we  unconsciously  transcend  the  rules  of  judgment 
applied  to  the  living,  and,  passing  by  the  infirmities  incident  to  the 
present  sphere,  dwell  with  satisfaction  and  comfort  upon  the  more 
solid  and  enduring  qualities  which  seem  appropriate  to  the  other. 

It  is  now  almost  fourteen  years  since  I  first  met  the  deceased  as  a 
member  of  this  House.  Though  not  at  that  time  politically  asso 
ciated,  our  relations  from  the  first  were  kind,  soon  friendly,  never 
intimate.  At  that  day  he  was  one  of  the  most  active  and  zealous, 
and  I  think  the  most  effective,  opponents  of  Mr.  Buchanan's 
administration  from  his  own  State.  Not  a  man  of  education  or 
culture,  as  these  terms  are  usually  understood,  nor  yet  an  orator, 
according  to  the  canons  of  the  schools,  he  was  what  neither  oratory 
nor  culture  nor  education  can  make ;  he  was  a  worker,  tireless  and 
fearless.  He  had  no  confidence  in  the  Administration,  and  believed 
it  to  be  very  corrupt;  and  therefore  moved  in  the  House  for  a 
committee  to  investigate  its  action.  The  results  were  embodied  in 
an  elaborate  report,  accompanied  by  voluminous  testimony,  which 
produced  a  deep  and  painful  impression  upon  the  public  mind. 
Justice,  I  am  inclined  to  think,  both  to  him  and  to  Mr.  Buchanan, 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  MAYNARD,  OF  TENNESSEE.  19 

would  require  the  revision  of  the  report  by  the  light  of  subsequent 
events.  The  Administration  was  so  complicated  with  the  incipient 
rebellion,  the  same  characters  being  conspicuous  in  both,  Cabinet 
officers  and  rebel  leaders,  that  it  requires  great  discrimination  to 
decide  for  what  of  its  acts  it  was  responsible  and  as  to  what  it  was 
merely  unfortunate.  The  time  has  not  yet  arrived,  and  if  it  had  this 
is  not  the  occasion,  to  pursue  the  inquiry.  And  the  suggestion  is 
thrown  out  merely  for  the  purpose  of  the  further  remark  that  had  Mr. 
Covode  lived  no  one  would  have  been  more  ready  than  he  to  correct 
any  injustice  into  which  he  might  have  been  unwittingly  betrayed. 
Of  conscious  injustice,  of  intended  wrong,  however  bitter  the  provo 
cation,  I  think  he  was  incapable. 

During  the  war,  even  while  not  in  public  life,  he  gave  to  the  Gov 
ernment  an  earnest  and  efficient  support.  Like  so  many  others  of 
the  prominent  men  of  that  day,  he  offered  his  own  son  a  sacrifice 
upon  the  altar  of  the  country;  and  we  have  all  seen  his  eyes  grow 
dim  with  natural  tears  when  recalling  the  memory  of  the  gallant  boy. 
He  became  satisfied  very  early  in  the  contest  that  we  were  virtually 
resisting  the  power  of  Great  Britain,  and  anticipated  an  open  decla 
ration  of  hostilities  with  that  government.  Though  pained  beyond 
measure  to  find  an  enemy  where  he  thought  we  had  a  right  to  expect 
a  friend,  he  did  not  hesitate  about  accepting  the  issue — doubtful  and 
destructive  as  it  certainly  appeared.  He  was  ready  to  stake  all  he 
had  upon  it  and  to  abide  the  fate  of  his  country.  As  might  be  sup 
posed,  he  sympathized  actively  with  the  soldiers  in  the  field;  often 
visiting  them  in  camp  and  using  great  diligence  in  providing  for  their 
wants,  and  in  correcting  the  many  irregularities  incident  to  the  volun 
teer  service,  especially  in  the  earlier  years,  before  either  officers  or 
men  had  become  trained  to  the  art  of  war  and  inured  to  its  hardships. 

His  subsequent  public  career  is  too  recent  and  too  .familiar  for  de 
tail.  Certain  cardinal  principles  of  action  have  regulated  his  course 
in  our  legislation.  He  believed  that  the  issues  of  the  war  should  be 
finally  settled  so  as  not  to  be  reopened  for  the  annoyance  and  con 
sternation  of  future  times;  that  the  settlement  should  be  confirmed  by 
fair  and  reasonable  guarantees;  that  the  colored  race,  emancipated 


20  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    JOHN    COVODE. 

during  the  war,  and  as  a  war  measure,  should  have  their  freedom 
secured  beyond  peradventure  as  a  real,  substantial  boon,  and  not  as 
an  illusory  thing;  and,  in  short,  that  no  man  of  any  race  or  residence 
should  ever  have  reason  to  regret  that .  he  had  actively  espoused  the 
cause  of  the  Union. 

•His  politics  were  peculiarly  of  the  old  Whig  school.  The  doctrines 
embodied  with  special  clearness  by  Mr.  Clay,  in  what  he  denominated 
the  American  system,  as  opposed  to  the  British  system,  he  deemed 
identified  with  the  highest  development  and  the  largest  prosperity  of 
this  continent.  Nor  was  he  a  mere  theorist.  For  many  years  I  have 
understood  he  was  actively  engaged  in  different  branches  of.  pro 
ductive  industry,  and  with  marked  success.  His  record  upon  all 
questions  connected  with  the  material  interests  of  the  people  will  be 
found  in  harmony  with  these  views. 

I  have  intimated  that  he  was  not  a  scholar.  As  implying  a  knowl 
edge  of  books,  beyond  the  Book  of  books,  of  which  he  was  a  dili 
gent  student  and  a  firm  believer,  the  remark  is  just.  But  in  a  wider 
and  larger  sense  he  was  not  untaught.  He  had  a  fair  knowledge  of 
men  and  of  things.  Few  could  more  wisely  decide  the  ends  to  be 
accomplished  or  more  judiciously  select  the  means  for  their  accom 
plishment. 

What  need  that  I  add  a  single  word  'touching  the  character  of  this 
self-poised  and  self-reliant  man  ?  For  us  who  knew  him,  none.  His 
kind  and  genial  humor,  his  unfailing  good  nature,  his  relish  for  merri 
ment,  and  his  almost  boyish  fondness  for  the  joyous  and  playful, 
endeared  him  to  us  all  as  a  friend  to  be  loved  and  an  opponent  not 
to  be  hated.  And  when  the  tidings  came  so  sudden,  so  shocking  to 
us  who  as  it  seemed  but  the  day  before  had  greeted  him  in  the  House, 
that  without  warning  he  had  been  stricken  down,  each  felt  that  his 
own  circle  had  been  invaded  and  one  of  its  most  agreeable  members 
taken  away. 

His  domestic  relations,  I  have  reason  to  say,  were  unsually  affec 
tionate  and  tender;  and  the  resolution  of  condolence  with  the  be 
reaved  family,  customary  on  similar  occasions,  will  in  this  instance 
carry  a  peculiar  significance. 


REMARKS    OF    MR.    GETZ,    OF    PENNSYLVANIA.  21 

His  moral  character,  as  distinguished  from  his  social  and  domestic 
character,  has  been  summed  up  by  the  popular  voice  in  the  single 
epithet,  "Honest  John  Covode."  Such  contemporary  estimates  of 
character  are  seldom  wrong  and  rarely  reversed.  And  I  feel  sure  of 
being  sustained  in  ascribing  to  him  the  attributes  of  one  of  the  best- 
drawn  characters  of  antiquity: 

"When  the  ear  heard  me,  then  it  blessed  me;  and  when  the  eye 
saw  me,  it  gave  witness  to  me :  Because  I  delivered  the  poor  that 
cried,  and  the  fatherless,  and  him  that'  had  none  to  help  him.  The 
blessing  of  him  that  was  ready  to  perish  came  upon  me ;  and  I  caused 
the  widow's  heart  to  sing  for  joy.  I  wras  eyes  to  the  blind,  and  feet 
was  I  to  the  lame.  I  was  a  father  to  the  poor :  and  the  cause  which 
I  knew  not  I  searched  out.  And  I  brake  the  jaws  of  the  wicked, 
and  plucked  the  spoil  out  of  his  teeth.  Unto  me  men  gave  ear,  and 
waited,  and  kept  silence  at  my  counsel.  After  my  words,  they  spake 
not  again." 


REMARKS  OF  MR.   GETZ,   OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  "I  come  to  bury  Caesar,  not  to  praise  him."  To 
speak  truth  of  the  dead,  though  an  ungracious  duty,  is  honester  far 
than  to  pronounce  the  fulsome  eulogy  which  makes  an  immaculate 
saint  of  him  who  while  he  lived  frankly  confessed  himself  a  sinner. 
As  a  party  man  Mr.  Covode  was  extreme,  uncompromising,  and,  his 
opponents  thought,  unscrupulous.  With  him  politics  meant  warfare, 
and  he  that  was  not  with  him  was  against  him,  and  treated  as  an 
enemy  to  whom  no  quarter  was  to  be  granted.  I  knew  him  long  in 
the  political  affairs  of  our  State,  and  so  radically  did  we  differ  upon 
all  the  questions  that  have  divided  parties  during  the  past  twenty 
years  that  I  cannot  remember  a  single  instance  in  which  we  were 
in  accord.  It  was  only  when  I  became  associated  with  him  in 
Congress  that  my  personal  acquaintance  with  him  commenced, 
and  that  the  opportunity  was  afforded  me  of  learning  that  he  whom 
I  had  always  looked  upon  as  an  implacable  political  adversary 


22  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF   JOHN    COVODE. 


possessed  traits  of  character  that  made  him  susceptible  to  the 
warmest  personal  friendship. 

Of  his  public  career  the  colleagues  who  acted  with  him  have 
spoken,  and  with  commendation.  Of  his  private  life  as  a  man  and 
a  citizen  I  feel  free  to  say  a  few  words,  because  I  can  say  them  in 
honor  to  his  memory.  With  no  advantages  of  early  education,  and 
with  none  of  the  adventitious  aids  to  advancement  that  many  of  his 
compeers  enjoyed  in  their  youth,  he  achieved  both  fortune  and 
fame  by  his  own  inherent  force  of  character.  Untiring  industry, 
indomitable  energy,  frugality  without  parsimony,  an  intellect  quick 
to  apprehend,  and  a  judgment  remarkably  acute  to  apply  the 
knowledge  he  acquired  in  his  intercourse  with  men,  were  the  ele 
ments  that  combined  to  make  his  life,  in  a  worldly  point  of  view,  a 
success.  The  secret  of  his  popularity  at  home  consisted  in  the  fact 
that  after  he  had  risen  to  affluence  and  attained  to  honorable  public 
station,  he  did  not,  as  many  have  done  under  similar  circumstances, 
turn  his  back  upon  the  scene  of  his  early  and  humble  toil  and  take 
up  his  abode  amid  the  splendors  of  fashionable  life,  where  his  wealth 
and  position  would  have  drawn  toward  him  that  society  which  is  so 
much  coveted  by  man's  vain  ambition,  but  remained  at  the  old 
secluded  homestead,  on  the  romantic  but  rugged  and  wild  mount 
ains  of  Westmoreland,  and  employed  his  time  and  means  in  devel 
oping  and  improving  not  only  his  immediate  neighborhood,  but  the 
whole  of  Western  Pennsylvania. 

John  Covode  had  his  faults,  as  who  of  us  has  not  ?  But  what 
ever  may  be  recorded  against  him  in  the  great  book  of  God's 
remembrance,  there  will  also  be  entered  to  his  credit  many  an  act 
of  kindness,  many  a  generous  deed,  many  a  work  of  charity,  many 
a  token  of  pure  friendship.  His  death  was  sudden;  so  sudden  and 
startling  that  when  the  intelligence  first  reached  this  city  it  was 
hardly  credited.  It  was  a  surprise  to  all;  and  may  I  not  say  that 
none  who  knew  him  heard  it  confirmed  without  a  pang  of  sorrow  ? 
Like  the  great  statesman  of  Kentucky,  no  man  had  warmer  friends 
and  none  more  bitter  enemies.  Now  that  he  has  gone  to  "the 
undiscovered  country  from  whose  bourn  no  traveler  returns,"  the 


REMARKS    OF    MR.    HALDEMAN,    OF    PENNSYLVANIA.  23 

*  

latter  may  properly  imitate  the  magnanimity  of  Henry  Clay,  who, 
when  it  was  expected  that  he  would  rejoice  at  the  death  of  his  life 
long  foe,  bowed  his  head  in  sorrow  and  feelingly  exclaimed,  "When 
God  lays  his  hand  upon  my  enemy  I  take  mine  off." 

For  myself,  burying  all  partisan  animosity  in  the  grave  that  has 
but  lately  closed  over  John  Covode's  remains,  I  shall  henceforth 
bear  him  in  the  same  kindly  remembrance  that  I  know  he  would 
have  borne  for  me  had  death  summoned  me  hence  before  him. 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  HALDEMAN,   OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

'  Mr.  SPEAKER:  Those  of  us  from  Pennsylvania  who  have  been 
somewhat  engaged  in  public  affairs  have  long  known  John  Covode 
by  general  repute;  and  in  the  brief  period  during  which  I  was 
personally  acquainted  with  him  I  found  him  to  correspond  to 
the  general  conception  I  had  previously  formed.  He  had  a  kind 
heart,  but  an  unyielding  will.  With  marked  intellectual  and  physical 
energy,  the  circumstances  of  his  life  were  such  as  to  develop  all  the 
strong  elements  of  his  character.  The  substratum  of  John  Covode 
was  true  grit ;  the  elements  of  his  nature  were  granitic.  Under  any 
circumstances  and  in  any  of  the  spheres  of  life  he  would  have  been 
successful.  But  it  was  his  good  fortune  to  early  feel  that  he  was 
dependent  on  his  own  efforts  and  his  unaided  energies.  Life  was  for 
him  a  battle,  and  in  that  battle  he  emerged  from  each  successful 
struggle  with  a  more  clearly  denned  and  more  self-reliant  character. 
The  granite  of  his  character  was  exposed  to  the  blows  of  fortune; 
but  each  blow  was  like  the  sculptor's  chisel,  developing  more  clearly 
the  well-defined  lineaments  and  form  and  mind  and  heart  of  John 
Covode — the  man — whom  we  all  so  familiarly  knew.  Adversity  is 
necessary  to  the  development  of  true  manhood.  Nations  and  indi 
viduals  who  are  possessed  of  inherent  vigor  and  strength  emerge 
from  great  trials  more  complete  and  admirable. 

Mr.  Covode  was  not  educated  as  the  schools  understand  education. 
The  son  of  a  "  redemptioner, "  and   thrown  chiefly  upon  his  own 


24  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF   JOHN    COVODE. 

resources,  he  obtained  a  better  education  and  more  complete 
development  from  victorious  contact  with  the  world  than  he  who, 
born  to  ease  and  with  all  the  facilities  of  technical  education,  emerges 
from  the  university  with  the  idea  that  his  education  is  ended ;  when 
truly  he  has  merely  acquired  the  educational  tools  with  which  he  is 
to  work  out  such  fortune  and  accomplish  such  duty  as  Heaven  sets 
him  to  do.  The  man  who,  like  a  Gladstone  or  a  Disraeli,  is  born  to 
comparative  fortune  and  is  crammed  with  all  the  learning  of  the 
schools,  who  has  tasted  of  the  delights  of  study  and  mental  acquisition, 
who  has  luxuriated  amid  philosophical  and  scientific  investigation, 
who  has  been  tempted  to  pass  his  life  in  the  serene  enjoyment  of  his 
taste  for  art  and  science  and  research,  far  removed  from  the 
deceptions  and  trials  and  disappointments  and  uncongenial  associa 
tions  of  public  life,  such  a  man  who  yet  wrests  himself  away  from 
laborious  yet  delightful  days,  to  become  a  leader  of  men  and  take 
active  part  in  the  battle  of  life,  deserves  perhaps  as  much  credit  as 
one  who,  like  Mr.  Covode,  is  compelled  to  strive,  and  striving,  win 
the  prize.  The  one  rises  superior  to  his  crushing  mass  of  knowledge, 
whether  profitable  or  unprofitable;  he  becomes  the  master  of  his 
acquirements,  and  is  not  mastered  by  them,  as  is  too  often  the  case. 
He  shows  his  true  grit  by  overcoming  the  natural  tendency  to.  ease 
and  luxury,  and  bravely  assumes  his  share  of  the  burden  of  those  who 
believe  that  each  of  us  owe  our  best  endeavors  to  the  amelioration  of 
the  nation's  and  the  race's  condition.  The  other  is  so  fortunate  as  to 
feel  the  constant  goad — to  be  developed  by  necessity  and  adversity, 
but  which  he,  too,  overcomes.  Each  plays  well  his  part,  each  fulfills 
the  duties  Providence  has  set  him  to  do,  and  thereby  gains  true 
honor  and  esteem.  Success  is  in  the  man,  in  the  unyielding 
determination  to  overcome  obstacles,  whether  those  obstacles  arise 
out  of  comfort  and  luxury,  or  out  of  adversity  and  want. 

Each  of  these  typical  men  would  probably  succeed  in  either  sphere. 
But  it  is  the  great  merit  of  our  institutions  and  civil  polity  that 
eminent  success  is  here  possible  and  facilitated  for  nature's  strong 
men,  no  matter  whether  fortuitously  placed  high  or  low,  with  or 
without  the  so-called  advantages  of  fortune.  Therefore,  John 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  •  HALDEMAN,  OF  PENNSYLVANIA.        25 

Covode's  career  is  eminently  typical.  Such  lives  as  his  are  the 
vindication  and  the  glory  of  the  Republic.  They  are  numerous ; 
they  are  on  all  sides  of  us.  They  point  the  true  moral  of  free 
government,  which  is  founded  to  cultivate  and  develop  individual 
man  in  all  those  talents  and  gifts  and  yearnings  which  he  has 
received  from  nature  and  nature's  God;  to  give  full  scope  for  the 
exercise  of  his  faculties  and  secure  to  him  his  just  share  of  reward. 


PROCEEDINGS  IN  THE  SENATE. 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  SCOTT,   OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  Again,  and  for  the  third  time  during  this  short 
session,  are  we  reminded  that  the  robes  of  office  will  not  ward  away 
the  shafts  of  death.  Another  of  our  colleagues  has  fallen,  and  we 
lay  aside  our  labors  for  a  few  brief  moments  to  pay  a  tribute  to  his 
memory. 

Hon.  John  Covode,  late  Representative  of  the  twenty-first  con 
gressional  district  of  Pennsylvania,  died  at  Harrisburg,  on  the  nth  of 
January.  He  had  left  this  city  a  few  days  previous,  proceeded  to  his 
home,  and  with  his  wife  went  to  Philadelphia,  and  made  arrange 
ments  to  place  two  of  his  younger  children  at  school.  Intending  to 
resume  his  duties  in  the  House,  he  started  to  return  by  way  of 
Harrisburg.  There,  in  his  usual  robust  health,  he  retired  to  rest  for 
a  few  hours  before  leaving  for  Washington.  Attacked  by  acute  pain 
in  the  region  of  the  heart,  he  awoke,  called  his  wife,  and  had 
medical  aid  summoned.  Remedies  were  administered,  but  within  an 
hour  he  died. 

John  Covode  was  born  in  Westmoreland  County,  Pennsylvania, 
on  the  iyth  of  March,  1808.  His  father  was  of  Dutch  and  his 
mother  of  Quaker  descent.  An  untarnished  name  was  the  only 
heritage  they  had  to  leave  their  son.  His  facilities  for  acquiring  an 
education  were  very  limited.  His  after  life,  however,  demonstrated 
that  his  will  would  yield  to  no  difficulties  which  perseverance  could 
overcome ;  that  obstacles  in  his  path  gave  birth  to  the  resolve  that 
he  would  surmount  them. 

When  quite  young  he  left  his  home  and  traveled  on  foot  to  the 
State  of  New  York,  wishing  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  some  branch 
of  manufacturing  industry.  He  selected  the  fulling  business,  cor 
rectly  calculating  that  one  of  the  necessities  of  his  native  district 
could  be  supplied  by  the  introduction  of  a  fulling  mill.  He  learned 


REMARKS    OF    MR.    SCOTT,   OF    PENNSYLVANIA.  27 


the  trade,  returned  and  established  what  was  known  for  years  as 
Covode's  woolen  factory.  Although  small,  when  compared  with  the 
huge  enterprises  of  the  present  day,  it  supplied  the  wants  of  the  neigh 
borhood.  He  was  an  honest,  industrious,  business  man,  and  gained 
the  confidence  of  all  who  knew  him.  Growing  in  knowledge  and 
experience,  seizing  the  opportunities  which  the  advance  of  improve 
ments  offered,  he  employed  his  energies  beyond  the  limits  of  his  own 
vicinity,  and  made  the  welfare  of  pther  sections  of  the  State  the  object 
of  his  solicitude. 

Pennsylvania  had  commenced,  in  1826,  an  extensive  system  of 
internal  improvements,  and  many  who  feared  the  burden  of  public 
debt  necessary  to  their  completion  shrunk  back  from  the  undertaking. 
Men  of  nerve  and  courage  were  needed  for  that  time.  Of  that  class 
was  Mr.  Covode.  Confident  in  the  value  of  the  boundless  but 
undeveloped  resources  of  the  great  Commonwealth,  he  gave  an 
ardent  support  to  all  measures  for  the  commencement,  prosecution, 
and  completion  of  her  canals  and  railroads.  When  these  furnished 
insufficient  facilities  for  trade  and  travel  he  again  gave  his  efficient 
aid.  He  was  one  of  the  original  friends  of  the  company  incor 
porated  in  1846  to  construct  a  railroad  from  east  to  west  through 
the  central  portion  of  the  State,  and  did  much  to  secure  its  success. 

When  these  improvements  by  State  and  company  enterprise  were 
completed  he  was  among  the  first  to  originate  schemes  for  utilizing 
them.  He  became  a  transporter  on  the  canal,  and,  while  the 
railroad  was  in  progress,  organized  companies  to  develop  the  coal 
fields  in  Western  Pennsylvania,  which  it  made  accessible.  In  all 
these  he  was  a  ruling  and  an  active  spirit,  and,  aided  to  a  great 
extent  by  his  prudent  management,  they  have  prospered  largely  and 
rewarded  his  sagacity  and  labors  with  abundant  success.  His 
perseverance,  foresight,  self-confidence,  hopefulness,  and  honesty  of 
purpose  had  all  been  exercised  in  behalf  of  his  immediate  neighbor 
hood,  county,  and  State,  but  it  was  not  until  he  entered  upon  his 
political  career  that  those  qualities  became  so  conspicuous  as  to 
attract  the  attention  of  the  country.  Before  his  election  to  Congress 
in  1854  he  had  been  a  candidate  for  the  State  senate  in  the  district 


2S  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    JOHN    COVODE. 

composed  of  the  counties  of  Westmoreland  and  Somerset.  Defeated 
by  a  very  small  majority,  the  canvass  demonstrated  his  hold  upon  the 
confidence  of  the  people.  His  party  was  in  the  minority,  but  many 
opposed  to  him  politically  waived  their  adherence  to  party  rule, 
casting  their  votes  for  him  as  the.  Whig  candidate. 

In  1854  Mr.  Covode  was,  for  the  first  time,  a  candidate  for 
Congress  in  the  then  nineteenth  congressional  district  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  was  elected.  He  was  re-elected  in  1856,  1858,  and 
1860.  In  the  legislation  immediately  preceding  the  attempted 
secession  of  the  Southern  States,  he  was  a  prominent  and  courageous 
actor  in  resisting  the  encroachments  of  conspirators  against  the 
Union,  and  in  exposing  the  schemes  for  the  extension  of  slavery. 
In  opposing  the  efforts  to  force  the  institution  upon  Kansas,  he 
battled  with  all  his  energy,  and  became  conspicuous  for  his  industry 
and  labors  as  chairman  of  a  committee  to  investigate  the  influences 
by  which  this  result  was  sought  to  be  accomplished. 

In  the  Thirty-sixth  Congress,  that  immediately  preceding  the 
election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  to  the  Presidency,  he  contributed  largely 
in  preparing  the  public  mind  for  a  change  in  the  policy  on  which  the 
National  Government  had  been  administered.  When  that  change 
came  and  secession  followed,  Mr.  Covode  stood  unflinchingly  by  the 
flag  of  his  country.  He  was  not  a  man  of  soft  words  and  persuasive 
speech.  The  time  had  come  when  it  was  to  be  decided  by  the 
arbitrament  of  the  sword,  whether  the  Union  should  be  preserved 
or  be  severed  into  fragments.  He  advocated  the  strengthening  of 
the  arm  of  the  Government  to  meet  the  attack  of  its  enemies.  His 
patriotic  exhortations,  though  not  couched  in  the  flowery  language 
of  the  rhetorician,  were  such  as  carried  conviction  to  the  minds  of 
the  people,  and  roused  them  to  a  sense  of  the  impending  dangers. 

From  the  inauguration  of  the  rebellion  until  the  4th  day  of 
March,  1863,  when  Mr.  Covode  voluntarily  retired  from  Congress, 
after  having  served  four  successive  terms,  he  was  recognized  as  the 
enthusiastic  defender  of  his  country's  weal  and  safety,  serving  during 
that  time  with  vigor  as  a  member  of  the  Joint  Committee  on  the 
Conduct  of  the  War.  But  he  gave  even  stronger  proof  of  his  loyal 


REMARKS    OF    MR.    SCOTT,    OF    PENNSYLVANIA.  29 

devotion  than  by  his  individual  efforts  as  a  member  of  Congress. 
He  gave  to  his  country  three  of  his  sons  to  do  battle  in  the  field, 
one  of  whom,  Colonel  George  Covode,  was  killed  in  battle  near 
Richmond;  another  returned  from  the  prison-house  at  Andersonville, 
broken  in  health,  and  now  remains  a  lingering  evidence  of  the 
cruelty  there  inflicted  upon  the  unfortunate  Union  prisoners ;  a  third 
completed  his  term  of  enlistment  and  was  honorably  discharged. 

At  the  close  of  the  Thirty-seventh  Congress  Mr.  Covode  retired 
temporarily  from  public  life.  Though  in  no  official  position,  he  did 
not  remain  an  inactive  spectator  of  the  continued  struggle  of  parties. 
In  1862  and  in  1864  his  district  was  carried  by  the  Democrats.  To 
effect  a  change  in  the  representation  he  again  became  a  candidate  in 
1866.  His  personal  and  political  popularity,  backed  by  his  great 
energy,  secured  an  election.  In  1868  he  was  again  chosen  to  repre 
sent  his  district  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  in  1869  he 
conducted  the  political  campaign  as  chairman  of  the  Republican 
State  central  committee.  Such  is  a  brief  sketch  of  the  leading 
incidents  of  his  business  and  public  life,  and  they,  to  a  great  extent, 
indicate  his  character. 

He  was  not  a  man  of  learning;  he  was  a  man  of  intellect.  It 
was  not  that  cultivated  intellect  which  often  leads  men  to  be  mere 
thinkers,  whose  thoughts  end  in  dreams  and  are  sometimes  afterward 
caught  up  and  made  practical  by  the  earnest  workers  of  the  world. 
His  was  that  busy,  practical  brain  which  made  him  a  man  of  action, 
a  type  of  the  untiring  working  men  who  are  making  their  mark  upon 
this  active  century,  who  study  their  fellow-men  more  than  books,  and 
who  are  indispensable  to  the  earnest  thinkers  of  the  age.  Earnest 
thinkers  and  earnest  workers  need  each  other.  Earnest  thought  is 
earnest  work  in  one  sense,  but  not  in  all  senses.  The  earnest 
thought  of  the  commander  who  plans  a  campaign  or  maps  out  a 
battle-field  may  be  earnest  work  for  him ;  but  it  is  not  that  kind  of 
earnest  work  which  carries  forts  and  routs  opposing  armies.  The 
men  who  do  this  kind  of  earnest  work  should  live  in  history,  as  well 
as  those  who  plan  it  and  direct  it  to  be  done. 

I   saw  recently  a  large    painting  of   the   battle   of   Gettysburg, 


30  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    JOHN    COVODE. 


ordered  by  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  It  represents  the  pinch  of 
the  fight — the  repulse  of  Pickett's  charge.  Its  central  figure  is  a 
private  Union  soldier — tall,  muscular,  with  all  the  energy  of  deter 
mined  action  apparent  in  every  feature  and  in  every  limb — with  a 
musket  clenched  frantically  in  his  hands,  and  drawn  to  strike  an 
assailant.  He  seems  to  be  the'real  leader  of  all  who  are  behind  him. 
The  commanding  generals  are  in  the  dim  distance.  I  thought,  as  I 
looked  upon  it,  that  the  men  of  action  are,  in  our  day,  coming  to 
the  front. 

Such  a  man  was  John  Covode.  His  speeches  do  not  fill  many 
columns  of  the  Globe.  His  actions  have  influenced  events  which  will 
employ  the  pens  of  many  historians;  and  if  the  thoughts  and  the 
reasonings,  during  our  years  of  trial,  of  such  men  as  Stevens  and 
Fessenden  among  the  dead,  of  others  whom  I  may  not  in  good 
taste  here  name  among  the  living,  shall  afford  food  for  the  students 
who  shall  come  after  us,  the  deeds  of  John  Covode,  as  they  stand 
upon  the  same  record,  in  the  same  years,  will  command  the  gratitude 
of  the  patriot's  heart.  In  the  word-painting  of  history  his  name  will 
not  be  left  out. 

He  was  bold,  energetic,  self-reliant,  and  persevering.  He  investi 
gated  for  himself,  he  decided  for  himself,  and,  when  he  decided,  the 
next  step  was  to  act.  Some  friends  were  proposing  to  him  to 
examine  into  the  practicability  of  a  railroad  up  the  valley  of  the 
Platte,  and  wished  to  submit  the  opinion  of  an  engineer.  "  Let  us 
go  and  see  for  ourselves,"  said  Mr.  Covode,  and  he  went,  taking 
some  of  his  friends  with  him.  His  own  examination  decided  his 
course  upon  that  question. 

But  although  energetic  and  self-reliant,  he  was  neither  repellant 
nor  selfish.  Warm  as  a  partisan,  he  was  genial  and  generous  in 
social  life  and  as  a  personal  friend.  I  will  not  say  of  him  that  he 
had  no  enemies ;  for  if  I  did  it  would  imply,  in  my  belief,  that  he 
had  failed  in  some  of  life's  duties.  He  had  the  nerve  to  do  right  as 
he  saw  the  right ;  and  the  man  who  does  that,  either  in  private  or 
public  life,  will  have  enemies. 

He  was  the  friend  and  trusted  counselor  of  the  poor  and  dependent. 


REMARKS    OF    MR.    SCOTT,    OF    PENNSYLVANIA.  31 

Having  himself  come  up  from  the  vale  of  poverty,  he  sympathized 
with  the  sorrows  of  those  in  want.  He  certainly  had  never  read,  in 
the  original,  Dido's  address  to  ^Eneas,  and  it  may  be  he  could  not 
have  quoted  Dryden's  translation  of  her  sentiment— 

"I  learn  to  pity  woes  so  like  my  own,  " 

but  he  did  what  was  better  than  scanning  Latin  or  quoting  English 
verse.  When  the  needy  came  to  him  he  did  not  exhaust  his 
sympathy  for  the  poor  in  sentiment  for  their  class.  He  ministered 
to  the  needy  man  or  woman  before  him,  asking  aid. 

I  cannot  refrain  from  expressing  here  the  thoughts  that  were 
prompted  by  the  scene  at  his  funeral,  which  I  attended,  upon  the 
invitation  of  the  committee  appointed  by  the  House.  His  residence 
was  in  a  deep  and  narrow  valley.  As  we  neared  it,  Hendricks 
Creek,  named  by  the  ancestors  of  Senator  Hendricks,  came  in  sight, 
wending  its  way  along  the  foot  of  a  high  hill.  Steep  hills  were  on 
every  side  of  us,  and  it  seemed  that  there  was  no  outlet  for  the 
struggling  stream.  But  it  finds  its  way  after  many  windings,  and, 
passing  through  the  tributaries  of  the  Alleghany,  flows  on  to  the 
Gulf,  mingling  its  waters  with  that  stream  which,  by  its  genial 
warmth,  breaks  up  the  frozen  regions  of  the  North.  Was  it  this 
surrounding  that  impelled  John  Covode  to  action  ?  Did  he  look  out 
over  the  high  hills  which,  on  every  side,  shut  him  from  the  busy 
world  beyond,  and  resolve  that  he,  too,  with  his  strong  German 
common  sense,  keeping  him  ever  on  the  plane  of  right;  with  his 
warm  Quaker  heart  throbbing  in  unison  with  the  aspirations  of  the 
oppressed  for  freedom  and  the  equal  rights  of  man,  would  go  out 
and  cast  his  influence  into  that  great  gulf  stream  of  enlightened  and 
advancing  public  sentiment,  which  was  breaking  up  the  polar  sea  of 
human  bondage  ?  This  he  had  done,  and  he  had  lived  to  see  liberty 
proclaimed  "through  all  the  land,  to  all  the  inhabitants  thereof." 

But  his  race  was  run ;  and  there  he  was  dead,  his  sorrowing  friends 
and  stricken  wife  and  children,  his  sympathizing  neighbors,  all 
shocked  by  the  suddenness  and  severity  of  the  affliction.  The  loss 
sustained  by  that  bereaved  family  is  one  which  no  earthly  hand  can 
temper,  no  human  sympathy  can  lessen.  The  loss  sustained  by  the 


32  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    JOHN    COVODE. 

community  in  which  he  lived  was  .attested  by  the  presence  of  the 
people  of  all  ranks  and  conditions  of  life,  to  pay  the  last  tribute  of 
respect  to  his  memory.  High  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  were  there. 
On  foot,  on  horseback,  in  the  road  wagon,  in  the  carriage,  in  every 
way  that  men  and  women  could  travel,  did  the  long  funeral  pro 
cession  wend  its  way  to  the  little  village  church-yard,  in  the  county 
of  his  birth,  to  lay  him  in  his  last  resting-place,  by  the  side  of  his 
gallant  son,  and  surrounded  by  the  tablets  which  tell  the  "  short  and 
simple  annals  of  the  poor." 

If  a  man's  life  has  not  impressed  his  fellow-men,  his  funeral  will 
not.  But  his  funeral  may  tell  how  his  life  has  impressed  them ;  and, 
standing  there,  no  man  could  doubt  the  sincerity  of  the  sorrow 
which  his  death  had  occasioned  among  those  who  knew  him  best. 
A  bad  man  could  not  be  so  mourned.  Taken  as  he  was,  without 
warning,  away  from  the  busy  scene's  of  life's  activities,  when  looking 
forward  to  new  and  important  enterprises,  his  death  admonishes  us 
who  are  engaged,  as  he  was,  in  public  cares  and  duties,  of  the 
uncertainty  of  life  and  of  the  value  of  our  time;  that  we  should 

"  Part  with  it  as  with  money,  sparing  ;  pay 
No  moment  but  in  purchase  of  its  worth ; 
And  what  its  worth,  ask  death-beds;  they  can  tell." 

Mr.  President,  I  offer  the  following  resolutions : 

Resolved,  That  the  Senate  has  received  with  deep  sensibility  the 
announcement  of  the  death  of  the  late  Hon.  John  Covode,  late 
a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  from  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania. 

Resolved,  That  as  a  mark  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  Mr.  Covode, 
the  members  of  the  Senate  will  wear  the  usual  badge  of  mourning 
for  thirty  days. 

Resolved,  That  as  a  further  mark  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  the 
deceased,  the  Senate  do  now  adjourn. 


REMARKS    OF    MR.    SUMNER,    OF    MASSACHUSETTS.  33 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  SUMNER,  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 
Mr.  PRESIDENT:  I  venture  to  interpose  a  brief  word  of  sincere 
homage  to  the  late  John  Covode.  I  call  him  John  Covode,  for  so  I 
heard  him  called  always.  Others  are  known  by  some  title  of  honor 
or  office,  but  he  was  known  only  by  the  simple  name  he  bore.  This 
familiar  designation  harmonized  with  his  unassuming  life  and 
character. 

During  his  long  service  in  Congress  I  was  in  the  Senate,  so  that  I 
have  been  his  contemporary.  And  now  that  he  has  gone  before  me 
I  owe  my  testimony  to  the  simplicity,  integrity,  and  patriotism  of  his 
public  life.  Always  simple,  always  honest,  always  patriotic,  he  leaves 
a  name  which  must  be  preserved  in  the  history  of  Congress.  In  the 
long  list  of  its  members  he  will  stand  forth  with  an  individuality  not 
to  be  forgotten.  How  constantly  and  indefatigably  he  toiled  the 
records  of  the  other  House  declare.  He  was  a  doer  rather  than  a 
speaker;  but  is  not  doing  more  than  speech,  unless  in  those  rare 
cases  where  a  speech  is  an  act?  But  his  speech  had  a  plainness 
which  was  not  without  effect,  especially  before  the  people,  where  the 
facts  and  figures  which  he  presented  with  honest  voice  were  eloquent. 

The  rebellion  found  this  faithful  Representative  in  his  place,  and 
from  the  first  moment  to  the  last  he  gave  to  its  suppression  time, 
inexhaustible  energy,  and  that  infinite  treasure,  the  life  of  a  son.  He 
was  for  the  most  vigorous  measures,  whether  in  the  field  or  in 
statesmanship.  Slavery  had  no  sanctity  for  him,  and  he  insisted 
upon  striking  it.  In  the  same  spirit,  when  the  rebellion  was 
suppressed,  he  insisted  always  upon  those  Equal  Rights  for  All,  without 
which  the  Declaration  of  Independence  is  an  unperformed  promise, 
and  our  nation  a  political  bankrupt.  In  all  these  things  he  showed 
character  and  became  a  practical  leader.  There  is  heroism  elsewhere 
than  on  fields  of  battle,  and  he  displayed  it.  He  was  a  civic  hero. 
And  here  the  bitterness  which  he  encountered  was  the  tribute  to  his 
virtue. 

In  doing  honor  to  this  much-deserving  servant,  I  cannot  err  if  I 
add  that  nobody  had  more  at  heart  the  welfare  of  the  Republican 
3 


34  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    JOHN    COVODE. 


party,  with  which,  in  his  judgment,  were  associated  the  best  interests 
of  the  nation.  He  felt  that,  giving  to  his  party,  he  gave  to  his 
country  and  to  mankind.  His  strong  sense  and  the  completeness  of 
his  devotion  to  party  made  him  strenuous  always  for  those  com 
manding  principles  by  which  humanity  is  advanced.  Therefore  was 
he  for  the  unity  of  the  party,  that  it  might  be  directed  with  all  its 
force  for  the  good  cause.  Therefore  was  he  against  outside  and 
disturbing  questions,  calculated  to  distract  and  divide.  He  saw  the 
wrong  they  did  to  the  party,  and,  in  the  relation  of  cause  and  effect, 
to  the  country.  And  here  that  frankness,  which  was  part  of  his 
nature,  became  a  power.  He  was  always  frank,  whether  with  the 
people,  with  Congress,  or  with  the  President.  I  cannot  forget  his 
frankness  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  who,  you  know,  liked  frankness. 
On  more  than  one  occasion  with  this  good  President  his  frankness 
conquered.  Honorable  as  was  such  a  victory  to  the  simple  Repre 
sentative,  it  was  more  honorable  to  the  President. 

His  honest  indignation  at  wrong  was  doubtless  quickened  by  the 
blood  which  coursed  in  his  veins  and  the  story  which  it  constantly 
whispered.  He  was  descended  from  one  of  those  "  redemptioners" 
or  indented  servants  transported  to  Pennsylvania  in  the  middle  of 
the  last  century,  being  a  species  of  white  slaves,  among  whom  was 
one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  The 
eminence  which  John  Covode  reached  attests  the  hospitality  of  our 
institutions  and  shows  how  character  triumphs  over  difficulties. 
With  nothing  but  a  common  education,  he  improved  his  condition, 
gained  riches,  enlarged  his  mind  with  wisdom,  and  won  the 
confidence  of  his  fellow-citizens,  until  he  became  an  example. 

The  death  of  such  a  citizen  makes  a  void,  but  it  leaves  behind  a 
life  which  in  itself  is  a  monument. 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  SHERMAN,   OF  OHIO. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT:  Again  we  are  called  upon  to  share  in  the  last 
sad  ceremonies  on  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  one  of  our  old 
associates.  Mr.  Covode  entered  upon  his  public  life  in  the  Thirty- 


REMARKS    OF    MR.    SHERMAN,    OF    OHIO.  35 


fourth  Congress.  He  was  elected  a  member  of  Congress  in  the 
fall  of  1854,  when  for  the  first  time  the  anti-slavery  sentiment  of 
the  Northern  States,  aroused  by  the  Kansas-Nebraska  bill,  contested 
for  supremacy  in  the  administration  of  the  National  Government. 
The  commencement  of  this  struggle  dates  back  to  the  origin  of  the 
Government,  and  indeed  was  inherent  in  the  nature  of  the  human 
mind.  The  ideas  that  ruled  a  society  where  a  great  portion  of  the 
people  were  slaves,  and  the  ideas  that  controlled  a  people  all  free, 
were  of  necessity  in  a  state  of  chronic  war.  That  they  did  not 
sooner  come  in  armed  conflict  is  the  highest  evidence  of  the  for 
bearance,  obedience,  and  respect  for  law  that  is  the  distinguishing 
trait  of  our  race.  But  when  the  geographical  barriers  erected  by 
our  fathers  had  been  broken  down  in  the  interest  of  slavery  the 
conflict  became  inevitable.  The  mass  of  our  people,  with  a  keen 
perception  of  the  nature  of  the  conflict,  arrayed  themselves  into 
parties  distinctively  founded  upon  these  antagonistic  ideas.  Old 
party  divisions  melted  away;  other  issues  were  subordinated  or 
postponed;  and  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  Thirty- 
fourth  Congress  the  conflict  commenced  which  in  the  end  destroyed 
•slavery  and  left  us  in  all  the  States  with  institutions  in  harmony  with 
republican  liberty. 

Mr.  Covode,  though  a  Whig  in  politics,  was  elected  in  a  Demo 
cratic  district;  and  I  met  him  for  the  first  time  in  December,  1855, 
in  the  long  struggle  that  followed  over  the  organization  of  the 
House.  From  that  time  until  his  death  my  acquaintance  with  him 
was  intimate.  He  took  an  active  but  peculiar  part  in  all  the-  po 
litical  contests  of  the  time.  And  now,  sir,  in  reviewing  his  life,  for 
the  purpose  of  joining  in  this  tribute  to  his  memory,  I  can  truthfully 
say  that  I  knew  no  one  in  public  life  who  was  a  truer  friend,  more 
faithful  to  his  convictions  of  duty,  less  influenced  by  bitterness  and 
malignity,  and  who  was  less  changed  by  his  long  political  service 
from  the  plain  John  Covode  of  our  early  acquaintance.  It  so 
happened  that  I  once  visited  his  district  and  sought  the  secret  of 
his  continued  popularity  at  his  home,  where  there  had  been  many 
political  changes.  He  had  been  engaged  extensively  in  many 


36  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    JOHN    COVODE. 

branches  of  business,  had  been  very  successful,  had  accumulated  a 
large  fortune,  from  a  laboring-man  had  become  the  employer  of 
thousands  of  laborers,  had  held  high  official  position;  and  yet  in 
all  these  changes  had  continued  the  same  plain-hearted,  genial, 
kind,  and  accessible  John  Covode. 

His  success  did  not  excite  envy,  and  even  among  his  political 
adversaries,  though  he  was  a  very  decided  partisan,  there  was  no 
bitterness.  With  his  political  associates  in  the  House  of  Represent 
atives  he  was  popular  and  influential,  never  contesting  the  higher 
honors  of  political  strife  or  leading  in  debate;  yet  his  good  will  and 
good  offices  were  eagerly  sought  by  others,  and  when  given  were 
always  sincere  and  useful.  I  do  not  think  any  one  can  truly  say 
he  was  ever  misled  or  deceived  by  Mr.  Covode.  His  sagacity  in 
political  matters  was  intuitive.  He  felt  and  knew  the  popular  pulse, 
because  he  mingled  with  and  knew  the  people  as  well  as  any  man 
in  public  life.  In  his  popular  addresses  he  was  far  more  successful 
than  learned  and  polished  lawyers  who  depended  upon  studied 
preparation.  His  speeches  were  earnest,  direct,  and  good-humored, 
and  did  not  lose  their  force  though  his  grammar  was  not  always 
correct  and  his  ideas  were  clothed  in  homely  phrase.  Mr.  Covode 
was  one  of  the  many  who  under  our  free  institutions,  without  ad 
vantage  of  education,  but  with  native  talents,  great  industry,  and 
energy,  filled  the  measure  of  a  successful  life. 

He  did  great  good  in  developing  the  resources  of  his  State;  he 
was  true  to  his  political  convictions;  he  was  firm  in  his  friendships; 
he  was  a  good  husband  and  father;  and  now,  sir,  that  he  is  suddenly 
taken  from  us  by  death,  treading  a  little  time  before  us  the  dim, 
gloomy,  impenetrable  paths  of  future  life,  we,  his  old  associates,  can 
recall  his  memory  with  kindness,  respect,  and  affection.  When  we 
reflect  how  few  of  the  members  of  the  Thirty-fourth  Congress  still 
fill  their  places  in  these  Halls,  and  how  many,  both  of  our  friends 
and  adversaries,  are  now  dead — falling  here  and  there  in  the  changing 
phases  of  life  without  creating  a  ripple  in  the  great  current  of  events — 
we  feel  the  insignificance  of  any  one  human  life,  however  proudly 
and  prominently  it  may  be  for  a  moment  in  the  public  eye.  All  that 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  CAMERON,  OF  PENNSYLVANIA.         37 


we  can  do  is  to  contribute  a  little,  and  but  a  little,  to  the  general 
progress  of  our  country;  and  we  must  be  content  if,  when  our 
eulogies  are  pronounced,  our  survivors  may  say  of  us  what  has  been 
truly  said  to-day  of  John  Covode. 


REMARKS  OF  MR.   CAMERON,   OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT:  Leaving  a  particular  statement  and  analysis  of  the 
life  of  Mr.  Covode  to  gentlemen  more  intimate  with  it  than  I  am,  I 
design  saying  a  few  words  of  him  and  his  career  which  I  hope  will 
impress  the  youth  of  the  country.  In  him  we  have  a  bright  illustra 
tion  of  what  may  be  attained  under  a  political  system  which  invites 
every  kind  of  ability  to  its  service,  which  welcomes  every  description 
of  talent,  and  excludes  none  from  the  responsibilities  and  honors  of 
public  life. 

Mr.  Covode  encountered  the  difficulties  which  his  humble  extrac 
tion  and  poverty  placed  in  his  way  with  the  steady  courage  of  the 
race  whose  blood  flowed  in  his  veins.  His  father  was  one  of  those 
whose  passage  was  paid  from  the  Low  Countries  by  service  of  re 
demption  after  his  arrival  on  our  shore.  In  early  times  the  farmers 
and  small  manufacturers  of  Pennsylvania,  true  to  the  traditions  of 
our  State,  procured  this  class  of  laborers  in  preference  to  slaves.  That 
they  were  wise  in  this  choice  it  is  not  now,  happily,  necessary  to 
argue.  But  if  proof  were  demanded  it  may  be  found  in  the  beauti 
ful  valleys  now  possessed  by  the  descendants  of  these  imported  labor 
ers,  by  their  high  culture,  by  their  thrift,  and  by  the  exalted  honor 
which  marks  all  their  dealings.  And  it  is  worthy  of  honorable  men 
tion,  in  passing,  that  there  is  not  one  single  instance  in  which  these 
patient,  honest  people  failed  to  carry  out  to  the  uttermost,  and  in  per 
fect  good  faith,  the  contract  by  which  they  were  enabled  to  come  to 
a  land  of  plenty. 

However  much  of  honor  and  fame  John  Covode  may  have  earned 
by  his  public  services,  he  holds  a  higher  place  in  my  esteem  for  the 
true  courage  he  possessed.  I  never  honored  him  more  than  when, 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    JOHN    COVODE. 


in  a  speech  in  Philadelphia  not  long  ago,  he  boldly  proclaimed  what 
other  and  weaker  men  would  have  labored  to  suppress,  and  an 
nounced  as  a  reason  for  his  hostility  to  every  species  of  human  bond 
age  the  fact  that  his  father  had  been  sold  as  a  "  redemptionist "  near 
the  very  spot  where  he  was  then  speaking  to  thousands  on  matters  of 
high  importance;  standing  up  an  acknowledged  leader  in  a  land 
famous  for  the  number  and  abilities  of  its  leading  men  and  the  aver 
age  intelligence  of  its  people. 

This  German  element  in  Pennsylvania,  of  which  Mr.  Covode  was 
an  excellent  type,  found  itself,  from  very  early  times,  in  sharp  rivalry 
with  another  race  with  which  no  ordinary  qualities  could  maintain  a 
successful  struggle.  The  bold  and  enterprising  Scotch-Irish  and 
Scotch  were  already  there.  While  these  people  were  furnishing  the 
pioneers  for  our  constantly  advancing  frontier,  they  yet  left  behind 
them  a  strong  force  to  dispute  with  all  comers  the  possession  of  the 
land  their  courage  had  conquered  from  the  savage»and  the  wilder 
ness.  These  and  the  Swedes  were  mainly  the  purchasers  of  the  labor 
ers  who  were  brought  from  Europe,  and  were  the  owners  of  much  of 
the  soil.  But  scarcely  a  generation  had  passed  away  before  the  hired 
servants  began  to  buy  their  masters'  lands,  to  marry  their  masters' 
daughters,  and  to  make  good  their  claim  to  full  equality  with  those 
whose  bondmen  they  had  been.  For  a  time  the  Scoth-Irish  made  a 
sturdy  stand  for  that  supremacy  and  superiority  which  seem  to  be 
their  peculiar  inheritance,  place  them  where  you  may.  At  length  the 
thrift,  the  superior  patience,  and  the  perseverance  of  the  German 
blood  prevailed.  They  bought,  and  still  possess,  the  old  homesteads, 
and  have  furnished  us  with  an  array  of  distinguished  men  of  whom 
every  citizen  of  our  State  is  justly  proud;  while  their  rivals,  true  to 
their  character  for  progress  and  enterprise,  spread  westward  to  our 
borders.  There  they  took  firm  root.  And  from  that  citadel  of  their 
power  they  have  furnished  the  picket-guard  of  civilization  for  the 
continent.  While  the  sons  of  the  Germans  from  generation  to  gene 
ration  inherited  their  fathers'  lands,  they  continued  in  the  simple  pur 
suits  of  their  ancestors.  The  Scotch-Irish,  on  the  other  hand,  sent 
their  sons  to  colleges^  and  constantly  asserted  their  claims  to  power 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  CAMERON,  OF  PENNSYLVANIA.         39 


and  direction ;  the  result '  of  which  is  that  this  race  has  furnished  us 
with  more  Presidents  than  all  others  combined,  and  has  put  its 
indelible  impress  on  the  political  institutions  of  our  country. 

There  is  nothing  either  new  or  striking  in  what  I  have  said;  and 
it  may  be  considered  as  foreign  to  the  object  for  which  I  arose.  But 
to  me  it  seemed  necessary  in  considering  the  lesson  of  a  useful  man's 
life,  and  so  germane  to  my  purpose. 

John  Covode  was  the  irreconcilable  foe  of  slavery  because,  in  the 
traditions  of  his  family,  that  detestation  was  the  outgrowth  of  experi 
ence,  of  bitter  suffering,  of  unmerited  reproach.  He  loved  liberty 
as  one  to  whom  its  beauty  was  a  reality  and  not  merely  a  sentiment. 
And  so  the  same  practical  traits  are  to  be  seen  all  through  his 
character.  As  one  denied  the  blessings  and  advantages  of  educa 
tion,  he  was  an  unflinching  friend  of  free  schools.  As  an  American 
laborer,  his  life  was  spent  in  shielding  American  labor  from  the 
blight  of  foreign  competition.  As  'a  Pennsylvania!!,  he  loved  the 
State  which  gave  him  birth  and  sepulcher  to  his  fathers.  As  an 
American  citizen,  he  loved  the  land  where  he  and  his  kindred  found 
refuge  and  honor.  His  was  a  sympathetic  heart,  and  his  hand  was 
open.  He  alleviated  the  sorrows  and  afflictions  of  his  neighbors  with 
unstinted  generosity.  And  the  vast  concourse  of  those  that  flocked 
to  his  funeral  to  pay  honor  to  his  remains  is  conclusive  evidence  of 
the  high  estimation  in  which  he  was  held  by  those  who  knew  him 
best. 

And  this,  after  all,  is  the  touchstone  of  true  popularity.  The 
attendance  of  the  great  men  of  the  nation  who  represented  Con 
gress  at  his  burial;  of  the  refined  gentlemen,  his  associates  in 
business  and  in  humanitarian  projects;  of  the  eminent  men. who  left 
everything  to  add  their  tribute  of  respect  to  the  obsequies  of  their 
friend;,  was  indeed  honorable  to  them  and  just  to  his  memory.  But 
the  simple,  manly  grief  of  his  neighbors  far  outweighs  all  these,  and 
casts  an  honor  over  his  grave  which  all  else  was  incapable  of 
reflecting. 

Confident  that  I  have  spoken  but  imperfectly  of  Mr.  Covode's 
character,  I  yet  feel  that  what  I  have  said  is  not  in  vain.  Some 


40  LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    JOHN    COVODE. 


youth,  struggling  in  obscurity  against  an  adverse  fortune,  and  beset 
with  difficulties  which  appear  at  times  insurmountable,  will  read  of 
our  dead  colleague's  struggle  and  victory,  and  take  fresh  courage. 
If  even  one  such  shall  thereby  emerge  from  his  difficulties,  and  give 
to  his  country  and  his  fellow-men  the  strong  common  sense  and  the 
acute  understanding  of  another  John  Covode,  my  object  will  have 
been  attained.  And  I  cannot  pay  higher  honor  to  the  dead  than  to 
present  his  life  as  an  example  to  the  young  men  of  our  country, 
claiming,  as  I  do,  the  liberty  of  age  and  experience  to  press  this 
example  on  their  attention,  and  pointing  them  to  the  struggles, 
the  success,  and  the  end  of  the  life  of  our  departed  friend. 
I  second,  sir,  the  resolutions  offered  by  my  colleague. 


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